Introducing the Local List

Part of Gloucester’s Great Place Project involves creating a Local List for Gloucester, but what is a Local List and why does it matter and why would I want to get involved in it I hear you cry!  Well, we asked Sarah Orton, Community Engagement & Volunteer Officer, to shine a light on the initiative and help us understand why it is such an important step for the city.

So what is a Local List?

Local Lists are lists of buildings, places, structures, archaeological sites and green spaces that are not part of the Historic England statutory list – those are the places that are described as being Grade I, 2* or 2 listed buildings – that have a historical or architectural significance for a local area and community.

Its not just a list of names and addresses though, but a database of details about those heritage assets which includes details about its history – maybe who has lived there or who built it, what function or part it has played in the community, what its architectural merit is and how it contributes to and enriches the overall feel and character of the local area.

Local lists help tell the story of an area and ours will help us define what the essence of Gloucester is – in terms of its visual architectural and tangible historical features and landscape. It’s a way of celebrating the city. A way of saying this is Gloucester!

A great way to generate pride in Gloucester then?

Very much so, but our Local List will also be useful to anyone researching the city as it’ll be another source of easy to access local history information. It’s also useful for tourism as it shows what places and buildings ar

e of special merit and worth a look at. It’ll also serve to help protect the character of the city as there will be greater consideration in the planning process to anything on the local list.

So, is the Local List idea unique to Gloucester?

Lots of other cities and areas, some rural, some more urban, from right across the country have local lists. In fact Historic England and the government encourages and supports local authorities and organisations to create a local list. Obviously though Gloucester’s Local List, what is included and the detail in it will be unique to us. Nowhere else is quite like Gloucester!

Sounds like an initiative with a planned out process behind it.

Exactly! The Local List has many stages to go through. Gloucester City Council has created a draft criteria that the potential heritage assets will be judged against. This is currently out for public consultation to check that they have considered the type of things that our communities want them to consider. Once the criteria is approved, a band of volunteers from right across the city will be trained up on how to survey the potential applicants for the Local List. The council has an initial list of buildings, structures, archaeological sites, green spaces and locations that have been identified over the last couple of years as potential Local List nominations that will be used for an initial pilot project. The surveying will be done this Summer (keep your fingers crossed for dry weather!)

All the details from the survey of each heritage asset will be considered by a panel of heritage and planning professionals and community experts and judged subjectively against the criteria. There will then be an opportunity for the public to comment on the assets that have been earmarked to become part of the Local List. The initial places on the list will then be published in March 2020 and the process will start again with the public also having a chance to put forward places that they would like to see surveyed and considered for Gloucester’s Local List. So it will be an evolving rather than static thing, being added to each year.

Mmmm sounds interesting.  So how do I get involved?

There is lots of scope at every stage for the public to be involved in the process – after all it will be your Local List so its important that it reflects Gloucester in every way.

At the moment we are asking people to comment on the draft criteria that the candidates will be judged against. Click here for the details of the Local List initiative, what the criteria will be and a short survey to fill in.  The consultation finishes on Monday 15th July 2019 so we are keen to get people’s comments as soon as possible.

We are also looking for people to join our volunteer team to actually go out to do the surveying over the Summer. You don’t have to be a heritage or architectural expert or encyclopaedic on the history of the local area. There are short training sessions on 11th July to get you up to speed on what you need to do (and so you can get your location maps and high-vis vests) but otherwise you can do the surveying as and when suits you over the Summer. Some of the volunteers that are already signed up are making it part of their Sunday afternoon stroll, while others are making part of a stay-a-cation week of activities. (Opportunity has now expired)

Later in the year they will be a chance to join the Local List assessing committee and more public consultation on the first raft of places that have been approved, so watch out for details of these opportunities. And of course once we’ve got the pilot batch of places through the process we’ll be opening out the nominations to the public so if there is a building, structure, green space or archaeological site that you feel is important to the character and history of the city that deserves official recognition you’ll have chance to nominate it next year.

Oh excellent. I shall go and give the criteria consultation and that volunteering opportunity a look!
The lure of the high vis vest is hard to ignore!